RARE PLAN OF ANTIBES WITH ENGLISH TEXT C 1750

ANTIBES

£95

By William Heather (1764-1812) was and engraver and chart publisher in London. After working at first for the teacher in navigation and publisher John Hamilton Moore Heather set up in business on his own in 1793. He first specialized in publishing charts of British waters.

Rare plan of the port of Antibes ..English text ...'Dangerous rocks etc'

Depths and anchorages.

Only detail is J.S. is John Stephenson the engraver

Original / early colour Slight pleasant toning

Very good condition for this rare little map

William Heather (1764-1812) was an engraver and chart publisher in London. After working at first for the teacher in navigation and publisher John Hamilton Moore Heather set up in business on his own in 1793. He first specialized in publishing charts of British waters.

Produced nautical charts until his death in 1812, left his successful business to John William Norie. In his will Heather mentions his family, three friends, including Norie, , 'John Stephenson of Islington, engraver' and his shopman.

Stephenson clearly owes Heather money as, in the will, he is let off half his debts and is given two years to pay the rest. William Heather was also one of the two witnesses when Stephenson first married in 1796. Stephenson continued to engrave nautical charts for Norie for at least twenty years.

Heather specialized in supplying charts to the merchant trade, operating from the Navigation Warehouse at 157 Leadenhall Street, at 'The Sign of the Little Midshipman', a ship's figurehead suspended outside. The premises were immortalized by Charles Dicken's 1846 novel 'Dombey and Son' as the shop kept by Sol Gils: the 'Little Midshipman' was illustrated in the book.

Publications:

1795-1801 - A Pilot for the Atlantic Ocean.

1801 - New Set of Chart for harbours in the British Channel.

1802 - New Mediterranean Pilot.

1808 - Marine Atlas or Seaman's Complete Pilot.

1811 - The New North Sea Pilot, Sailing Directions for the River Lawrence, The New North American Pilot, New West India Pilot, New Pilot for the Brazils.

*Thanks to Deidre Boys for this information

Publication

The New Mediterranean Pilot: Containing Two Hundred and Twenty-four Accurate Plans of the Principal Harbours, Bays, Roadsteads, and Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Including Those in the Gulf of Venice, Archipelago, Sea of Marmora, and the Levant, Drawn from the French & Italian Surveys